San Diego City Council Refuses to Pay Mayor’s Legal Bills

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Mayor Bob Filner

SAN DIEGO — Saying taxpayers shouldn’t have to foot the bill for the mayor’s “mess,” the San Diego City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night not to pay any of Bob Filner’s legal bills as he fights a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by one of his top aides.

The move came just hours after the council voted — also unanimously — to sue Filner to recover any costs imposed on the city by the lawsuit, which names both Filner and the city as defendants.

The city’s suit will seek to recover any damages ordered by a court, or agreed to as part of a pretrial settlement, arising from the lawsuit filed by the mayor’s former director of communications, Irene McCormack Jackson.

“Intimidating women is not in Mayor Filner’s job description,” said Councilman Kevin Faulconer. “His employers, the San Diego taxpayers, should not have to bail him out of the mess he’s created.”